"By 2019, Americans earning less than $30,000 a year would be worse off under the Senate bill, CBO found. By 2021, Americans earning $40,000 or less would be net losers, and by 2027, most people earning less than $75,000 a year would be worse off. On the flip side, millionaires and those earning $100,000 to $500,000 would be big beneficiaries".

A or F? How Congress scores on marijuana. 2. By Danielle Keane, NORML political director. 2016. "Of the 233 Democrats in Congress, 208 members (89.3 percent) received a passing grade of a 'C' or higher. Of the 302 Republicans in Congress, 102 members (33.8 percent) received a passing grade of a 'C' or higher." For your state see: Congressional Scorecard. NORML. Grading was based upon members' voting records.

Ronald Reagan, 1980 campaign speech1: "Leading medical researchers are coming to the conclusion that marijuana, pot, grass, whatever you want to call it, is probably the most dangerous drug in the United States, and we haven't begun to find out all of the ill effects, but they are permanent ill effects. The loss of memory for example."

This massive wasteful healthcare spending in the USA (compared to other rich nations) accelerated in 1980 (see chart below). How? It happened because non-profit health insurance was taken over by for-profit health insurance companies. They get a cut of all wasteful healthcare spending. The more wasteful, the more profits. Such as exorbitant drug pricing, expensive medical devices, overuse of emergency rooms. It is similar to how for-profit prison companies have an incentive to fill more beds, rather than rehabilitate prisoners.

Non-profit health insurance, and single payer healthcare, do not have these perverse incentives. So they tend to use more early preventive care that requires far fewer expensive drugs, devices, and visits to the emergency room and urgent care. Healthcare, like roads, should be publicly financed, and privately built. Private health insurance, like private toll road companies, are a kind of middleman mafia that skims profits, and shuffles papers, but don't actually do any real work.

Chart below shows the percentage of the GDP (national economy) spent on all healthcare costs (public and private) by year for some countries. Note that around 1980 US healthcare costs skyrocketed compared to other rich countries (all of which have universal healthcare, unlike the USA).

With Single-Payer Universal Healthcare people get healthcare no matter how much they work or not. And it doesn't matter if they lose their job, or change employers. People don't have to show they are totally disabled to get adequate healthcare. People can try to work now and then as much as their disability allows them, and not lose their healthcare. And they get drug treatment on demand if their pill use gets out of hand.

Sources: [25][26]"Goulao says 90 per cent of public money spent fighting drugs in Portugal is channeled toward those health-care goals — just 10 per cent is spent on police enforcement."[27][28][29][30].

"By 2019, Americans earning less than $30,000 a year would be worse off under the Senate bill, CBO found. By 2021, Americans earning $40,000 or less would be net losers, and by 2027, most people earning less than $75,000 a year would be worse off. On the flip side, millionaires and those earning $100,000 to $500,000 would be big beneficiaries".

A or F? How Congress scores on marijuana. 2. By Danielle Keane, NORML political director. 2016. "Of the 233 Democrats in Congress, 208 members (89.3 percent) received a passing grade of a 'C' or higher. Of the 302 Republicans in Congress, 102 members (33.8 percent) received a passing grade of a 'C' or higher." For your state see: Congressional Scorecard. NORML. Grading was based upon members' voting records.

"The media in Guyana reporting that a Rastafarian group in Guyana staged a small demonstration near the country's Home Affairs Ministry on Thursday [May 6]. The rastas had earlier been prevented by police from marching through the streets of the capital, Georgetown."

The Guyana Rastafari Council says it will join a worldwide march next month to urge countries like Guyana, where the use of the ‘holy herb’ in small amounts is a crime, to change their laws. ... Vice President of the Guyana Rastafari Council, Ras Simeon, said that the use of certain amounts of marijuana should be allowed in Guyana, so that the Rastafarian community may have free use of its “holy herb”. He said that the current policies of Guyana regarding the issue are seen by the religious sect as “an infringement of ethnic rights”. “We have made a petition to Parliament for them to review the narcotics laws so that we, as Rastafarians, may be able to enjoy the sacramental use of the ‘holy herb,’ and so that the medical uses of marijuana can be administered freely to those who need it,” Simeon said. He added that Rastafarian communities worldwide will participate in a grand ‘Ganja March,’ from May 1 to May 8, to petition governments to decriminalise the use of up to one ounce of the drug. “We are a registered organisation and we deserve free access to the ‘holy herb’ to give us spiritual strengthening and to allow the free practice of our culture,” the vice president said.

Caribbean Rastafarians meet in Guyana. Caribbean Net News. August 18, 2008 article. "Chairman of the Council, Ras Simeon Sahele Selassie, called on all Rastafarians throughout Guyana and the Caribbean to attend and make the programme successful for the future development of the Rastafarian community in the Caribbean as a whole."